HS30-H

Skylne, yes. GT-R, no. Its a GT or GT-X.

That's a Japanese Shinto Bhuddist 'Omamori' - a small woven silk pouch containing a Shinto Bhuddist icon and a prayer for safety, usually bought from a temple at New Year. Think of it as the equivalent of a St Christopher medal, if you like. It is intended to help protect the owner from danger, and they are often given as gifts to loved ones in Japan. They only have a one year lifespan, and you are supposed to return them to a temple to have them ceremonially burned at New Year ( and get another one........ ). It's hanging from my light / wiper multi switch stalk.

It wasn't actually 'standard equipment' on any model. There might possibly be some confusion about the twin-tube exhaust system ( ie - from manifold back ) which was standard equipment on the PS30 'Fairlady Z432' and PS30-SB 'Fairlady Z432-R', and also an extra cost dealer option ( rather than a 'Sports Option' part ) on all the other contemporary L-series engined Fairlady Z and Fairlady 240Z models. The 'binocular' exhaust manifold to exhaust tube joint was the same on all models - so the exhaust systems themselves were interchangeable whilst the L-series and S20 manifolds differed. I think yours looks like part number 14004-E4620, which was seen in the November 1971 'Sports Option' list. Yours is a fairly rare survivor, in good condition. Better than mine I think. Congrats!

geezer, Just a little correction: The L6 'Nissan Sports Option' ex manifolds are not interchangeable with the S20 ex manifolds. The connections at the head and the port shapes are completely different.

Victor, Rounding it up a little, there would be less than 2,600 engines that were fitted to PGC10, KPGC10, KPGC110, PS30 and PS30-SB sold to the general public. Add a few on for complete crate engines sold as 'spare parts' and then the factory race and development engines, and it looks very unlikely that more than 3,000 were ever made. Hope that helps.

carrott, Do you actually know what you are looking at? At less than 500 made, yes I would call the Fairlady Z432 a "rare, low volume production exotic" actually. It certainly qualifies as such in comparison to most other S30-series Z models.

Kats, WOW! - PS30-00088, that's great! And engine number just 7 away from mine. Amazing. The number 8 being 'lucky' in Japan is all to do with Kanji. The best way for me to describe it ( as a layman ) is that the shape of the Kanji for the number 8 is a positive shape, called 'Suehiro-gari' in Japanese. Basically something that is wider at the bottom than at the top has good balance, and signifies that things will get better as they progress. That's my non-Japanese take on it anyway......! Kats, the number 88 always reminds me of Japanese police car numbers. We used to try to avoid them when we went out street racing late at night. It also reminds me of pianos, as full size pianos have 88 keys.........

Kats, Some interesting non-factory variation on this engine (?): S20 factory block paint colour was silver, and engine mounts were painted gloss black with no plating or primer underneath. Three block coolant drain plugs on exhaust side were originally zinc or cadmium plated with gold-passivated finish. Water-pump to head gallery casting hose was typical fabric-covered rubber with wire-type hose clamps.

Yoshida san's car is a beautiful example..........

Kats, I think some of the 432 'press' cars were fitted with cam covers that were a different shade to the main production cars - so it is hard to use them as a benchmark...... I always worry about flash photography and early 1970s origination and colour litho printing, not to mention fading inks on 37 year old magazines! PGC10 ( 4 door ) GT-R cam covers were crackle black ( or at least a very very very dark grey ) and Murayama ( works ) competition S20 engines were crackle black. Some KPGC10 ( 2HT ) GT-R valve covers seem to have been a slightly lighter greenish-grey crackle finish, and some KPGC110 can be observed as lighter still. Hard to be definitive on this though. Crackle red was never a factory finish according to my sources of advice ( who should know, given their occupation in the period concerned ) but we see lots of them painted that colour by owners over the years, and by tuning garages such as Ishizaka san's. I think this is 'Testa Rossa' romance! My project S20 engine ( no. S20-000877 ) was originally from a very early 432 ( produced in late 1969 or very early 1970 I'm told ) and lots of the components are dated S44. Valve cover was surely never repainted before I bought it, and it was what I would describe as a 'faded black' crackle finish. I scrubbed and scrubbed, and it still came up blackish dark grey......... but where the paint was covered by brackets and attachments it was pure black crackle underneath. Definitely some variations 'in period' then......